The Chaser Report - The Assassination Of Raygun: The Musical: The Cryptocurrency

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

Comedian Steph Broadbridge had her Raygun musical cancelled by lawyers representing the Olympian, and Dom has insight on how Steph might avoid the copyright case. Meanwhile, John brings cryptocurrency back to the forefront of our minds, thanks to the Hawk Tuah Girl. Plus, Lachlan fears for his safety as a fellow billionaire was struck down in New York #Thoughts&Shares Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report. Dom here, Charles is still out of action. I think we'd assume he's not going to be back until 2025 at this stage. Although he is doing the war on 2025 tour, so if you've managed to catch him on that, then give him our regards. However, we have this emerging, amazing trio covering the news for you.

Alongside me, once again, we have Lachlan Hodson, our fine producer. Hello, Lachlan. Hello, Dom. How are we? so well and editor at the chaser John Delmenico. Welcome back. Hello. Now we've all been scouring the news over the weekend. A lot time. There's actually, we just did a quick run through. There's about 10 stories we could cover for tomorrow morning. So let's just choose the most important world shattering and newsworthy, shall we guys? Yeah, no, I agree that we should go with something that's the most important. And that's why I've selected a story that has me fearing for my

personal safety. You guys might relate to this. There was that billionaire who got shot and middle of New York City last week. I saw that. It was concerning. No, it is very concerning. And I think people like us should be really worried about our safety. We may not be billionaires, but in terms of, you know, cultural cachet and importance to the planet, sure, absolutely. Very newsworthy.

I like it. John, what you got? Even more newsworthy, I've got the holy combination of the hawk to a girl and cryptocurrency. Oh my gosh. That is earth-shattering winner. We know, you know, crypto has exploded since Donald Trump won. Bitcoin's north of $100,000 for the first time, their all-time record. And so the hawk twa girl has somehow tried to be associated.

Is this her doing it or is it someone doing it in her dubious honor? We'll get into that in my segment because it's a team up. And just like with every good crypto currency, we're a couple days in and they're already blaming each other for everything. It's a collab. And I have another collab that might have been, but won't be on my. legal advice. This is probably as important as your stories are, this is the biggest

I think globally. In terms of geopolitics, we could have done the disasters in South Korea with the president declaring martial law. Whatever's going on in Syria is absolutely massive. The Assad regime seems to be in tatters. So what did you select, knowing those two things? I mean, no one can blame

me for this. I chose the fact that Ray Gunn, the musical, got pulled given the involvement of lawyers. Comedians, definitely Broadbridge is not proceeding with Raygun, the musical. Apparently, this would be detrimental to Raygun. We'll talk about how on earth that's possible after these fine messages. Thank you for your patience.

Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.com. All right, Lachlan, let's begin with you. They've tried to kill billionaires in the United States a few times this year.

Donald Trump had multiple attempts that were foiled, one by the Secret Service, and I think the second one by the ineptitude of the gunman, largely. Yeah. What happened? And if you were watching the news this year, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking that billionaires were immune to everything, every form of consequence, including gunpowder. Yeah, got it.

Last Wednesday, we were proven wrong. when United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, was shot dead on his way to entering the Hilton Hotel on December 4th at 7 a.m. in the morning in New York City. Killer was caught on CCTV, firing several shots at Thompson, and then they got away. There's all sorts of classy getaway vehicles you can use to escape the scene of a crime, But because this story really speaks to the class struggle, the killer didn't leave in a car. They didn't leave in a truck or any sort of getaway vehicle. They left on the New York City equivalent of a lime bike.

Oh, really? Yeah. Or they called city bikes or something. It's good to get your exercise in. It is important to get your cardio, absolutely. And the thing is, I was wondering how on earth the getaway would work in New York City, where famously traffic is slower than walking pace. Traffic is slow, and there's cameras everywhere.

And yet, almost a week later, New York police have absolutely no idea who did it. They suspect that the gunmen's left the city and are still at large. However, they are looking for, there's two criteria that the New York police are using to narrow it down. And that's someone in America who hates healthcare and owns a gun. Wow. So... That's only about 100 million people. Only.

Are they sure, though, that he's left NYC, Loughlin? Because if it was me on one of those lime bike, you know, bike rental things, I would have been, I would have got a couple of blocks and then there's been an alley panting for the next week. It's funny you say that because what happened was the reason why they were able to disappear so easily was they, I'm not sure if you guys ever played those video games like Grand Theft Auto. Sure. You'd have a wanted level. Yeah, yeah.

So what happened was in those old games, you used to just be able to disappear into the local park and then your wanted level would go down to zero. And in a touching tribute or Easter egg in the real world, the gunman was seen taking the bike into Central Park where they disappeared and that was where the New York police lost them. America's highest paid police force couldn't find someone in Central Park. While we're doing out-of-date memes from video games, you've got to go to Central Park.

You can't pass Central Park without picking up a whole bunch of Pokemon. Like, you know, it's the best place to catch them. Everyone knows that. Wow, so what are some of the details? What's going on? Yeah, there's been a ton of crazy stuff going on. I do love, there's been a lot of controversial around images, but so far the only verified image of him was taken at a Starbucks,

where while masked up from doing the murder, he just stopped in to get a drink and then left. Yeah, so we've seen at two places. He was seen at a Starbucks, and he was also seen at the hotel where we got the clearest photo that we've gotten of his face where we see half of what and you know where we're just trying to stick to the facts here because we're journalists but is a pretty hot looking guy wow flirting with the receptionist at the hotel subsequently the entire internet is frothing over this

alleged murderer person with follow through they get their exercise in they're stylish they've also got a flare for a detail because on the bullet casings they engraved deny depose defend which is to echo the healthcare insurer tactic where there's a sort of adage of delay deny defend so this guy's got style he's got

swagger and no one knows where he is now obviously murder's bad but thank you for clarifying that Lachlan after your obvious admiration of this tactic there was the really funny detail that came out today where they found his bag that he left the scene and the bag is full of monopoly money

so he carried a backpack with him with monopoly money just so he can ditch it as a clue this is a satirist isn't it this is a satirist thinking they're making a sharp point one thing i do want to clarify because i don't want us to get sued is that the guy in the photos um the hot guy has come out and said that the photo has ruined his reputation claiming that it's not him which people are putting out he's wearing different clothes than the then the other photo oh so it's not the starbucks guy okay so the so the So the killer's not hot. So the NYPD just assumed because he was wearing a grey jacket and a backpack.

He is the same person as the guy that was wearing a different shade of grey jacket and a different backpack. And the best part is now the media is doing all the articles. It's like, oh, someone claimed that he's the murderer. And that's so weird. We would never. There's daily mail articles been like, oh, this poor guy, his life's been ruined a few hours after the daily mail posted. He's been out of it as going to Starbucks. That's really important.

It's just going to show you known shit about coffee. I don't want to belittle your coverage of this very important story, but I must say if you were trying to make a political point, though, surely you wouldn't murder a healthcare CEO. That would be, what you would do is injure them and require them to need health care. Like, wouldn't you? And it would take a very long time and, you know, even, he'd probably get, it's a two-tier system.

So actually, that wouldn't work, presumably. He'd get instant very good health care. It's just that if he wasn't a billionaire, he'd be left to die. the street. All right. Now look, that was newsy, but I think we're going to just take a break and then just ratchet up the newsiness of this a whole lot more. Let's do that. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca.

More news Less often John Crypto plus hooktwag Is the hooktwag She's still She has the third biggest podcast in America

What? Yeah the talk to her podcast What's the idea? Is it just her guy Mainly with people watching it ironically How? Oh okay There's actually a really popular podcast right now

That is two comedians Dissecting it The way that people dissect cinema Oh right Yeah that's great And just scene by scene Breaking it down really well Admitted I've only heard

about five seconds of her recorded work in the form of the clip that we all know. But it doesn't make me think, gosh, I'd really like to spend a lot more time hearing what this woman thinks about things. So just a reminder for the audience, the hawk tour girl is the person who spoke about last week in an episode where Lachlan said that

she's his favorite celebrity and he set a five-minute love letter to her. And if you didn't hear it, that's just because Lachlan edits the podcast. I'm also paying for a cameo from her to send to all of my loved ones this year. Yes, no, that is true. Sounds like a lot of fun.

But luckily, make sure you're careful with your money because the Hoctua girl has saved the world economy by launching her own cryptocurrency called the Hock Tua Token. Oh, I'm so thrilled. I knew that if anyone could fix the cost of living crisis, it was my girl, the Hock Tua girl. Does she get a name beyond the Hock Tour girl? It's Haley Welch.

But no one knows her name is Haley Welch. I'm impressed you both know it because I certainly don't. All right. Is it now just, I mean, you're more your younger, than me, you've got your finger on the pulse far more than I do. Is it now the case that any shit meme that ever happens will just automatically launch a coin?

Yeah. Is that just... We're at a point where if they don't launch the coin themselves, someone else will pretending to be them. Oh, God. I admit, I'm a bit confused by it too, Dom, because I'm not sure, particularly with Doge as the example, I'm not sure if you're supposed to launch a Bitcoin first, or if you're supposed

to just go straight to becoming a joke department in the US company. That's true. It seems It seems that Haley's gone for the coin. I'm very confident. Classy. Between now and the 20th of January when Donald Trump takes office, he will either name her to a very senior cabinet position

or create a department of Hoctoa. That sounds like something Donald Trump would do. So let's just put it in that one. He is her target demographic. From the sounds of what you used to are saying, you guys are very negative on the idea of this coin and how revolutionary it will be. But I'll have you know, this coin launched with genuinely true,

a 17% fee. on any transaction as their way to try to stop scammers. So if you want to buy, if you want to sell a coin, there's a 17% fee on the sale price that you had to pay directly to the creators of the coins. So stopping scammers by themselves having a scam, is that basically what we're saying? Yeah, but then in return of that,

what they also did was that they didn't cap the selling of people who had coins from before the launch date. Oh, that's the pump and dump. were owned by people who were directly either like directly involved in the creation of the coin or a one person away from that. That's hilarious. So I can see here, I can see here on the chart.

There are charts that like show the circle of influence around the coin and how many places it goes but this one is literally just like one giant circle of 97% of people are within one transaction of the original source and then 3% of the owners aren't from that.

So again, that's only a scam if say the moment they launch, there's an immediate rug pull, and all of those people sell. Pump and dump. That's what they do. Which is exactly what's happened. Of course. Now, they claim, because they did what they thought was a very smart thing, where they went directly to the internet's best cryptocurrency tracking journalist, the YouTuber Coffeezilla, and did a live interview with him on Twitter, using the Twitter live feature.

Oh, God. So it's worked. Stop working after five seconds. So they straight away had the experience. that one person came in and bought up a whole heap and then sold that immediately. Which is true. One person did, but CoffeeZilla pointed out that person made less money in the gross sales than the amount of money that the group that made the coin made just on the transaction fee alone, which is an estimated $1.8 million in the first day. Wow. So CoffeeZilla obviously asked, where did that money go?

Because why do you need $1.8 million as like a processing fee on a cryptocurrency? I know of some pretty high processing fees. I've been shopping at Ticketech and Commonwealth Bank lately, but 1.7 mil is slightly taking the piss. That's extraordinary. But, Lockland, you've forgotten a major way to spend money when you're setting something up, which is genuinely what they cited they need the money for,

which is setting up a foundation and bank account in the Cayman Islands. Oh, yeah, like all the reputable people do. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that Cayman Islands bank accounts don't just grow on trees. You need $1.8 million. dollars to keep those alive.

Wow. Surely they could have just taken over one of Sam Bankman-Fried's disused, like, FBI seized account. And obviously the journalist was like, okay, but who has access to that money? And they just kept being like, oh, well, the foundation and the creators. But when they're asking, well, does that mean Haley Welch? They'd be like, oh, I don't know. In one 24-hour period,

seven and a half million US dollars was spent on this stupid coin. The 24-hour volume of trade on the fish of this month was that. that. Yeah, it's now in the doldrums. I'm going to buy some. I reckon this one's going to come good. I reckon she's just getting started. It's not like she was a little, you know, a celebrity whose time is well overdue and we should have forgotten about a month ago. No, I think she has a bright future. I'm getting on board the hooktwa coin. I think she's the next Joe Rogan. I think this is the next American dollar. I think she's the next Raygun. Actually, why hasn't Raygun got a coin? Raygun's as viral as the, presumably someone's tried to start one. And then her

lawyers jumped on that which is going to take us to the final story of today which is look it's hard starting a new music writing a new musical and you know getting the IP and so on step broadbridge comedian wrote ray gun the musical and uh the lawyers for dr rachel gun aka ray gun got in touch and said you can't do it uh you got to shut down the premiere and there's a very funny video on instagram made by uh step broadbridge here's a little bit of it i'm like trial show tonight for Ray Gunn the musical has been cancelled. Raygun's lawyers got in touch with the venue and threatened legal action. So we will be refunding everyone their $10 or comp ticket back.

For that, her lawyers trademarked my poster, which is flattering. I hope they do something fun with that. And they're also worried that I was damaging her brand, which I would never do. She doesn't need me to do that. Do you think she's subtly trying to suggest that it's not possible for anyone to destroy Raygun's reputation? Worse than the whole Olympics thing actually succeeded in doing? How dare you? Ray Gun is a national hero,

and that's why she hangs out with other famous Australians like Boy George, who hosted a Season of the Voice, and Richard Branson. And not to mention that she was just the keynote speaker at the Murdoch Press Diversity and Inclusion event. Wow. That's really taking that one seriously. I will admit there's a slight conflict of interest here, which is actually that the dear Professor Gunn was a lecturer of mine at Macquarie.

No. No, this is absolutely true. Later this week, a whole episode on what that was like. That's genuinely breaking news. Some of the songs we would have heard were this work of art not cancelled. You may be a B girl, but you'll always be an A girl to me. Oh, that's gold. I'm breaking down, which seems very literal.

And my favourite, I would have won, but I pulled a muscle. And apparently you can't do the kangaroo hop, the kangaroo dance, because what are you calling it? The kangaroo movie, you can't do because that's a Raygun original. They were going to donate all the money from this event to the women's and girls' emergency centre. And apparently what they're going to try and do is change the name to Ray Gun the musical with an I, R-A-I-G-U-N. So there you go.

Legally, Dom, what's the grounds here for suing? Because I heard that, and in the video, Steph mentions that her poster was taken down, was actually copyright claimed. But it's a photo of Steph. Like, it's Steph's own photo. But now Raygun owns it. Is she doing the kangaroo ads? I've seen. I think she's doing a slight pose.

I've seen suggestions that apparently Raygun has filed for trademark for the word Reagan. Yeah. That's right. Right, so she has. It's the Guardian reports that the lawyers have said that she's going to trademark Raygun apparently. But dressing up in an Australian in an Australian track suit and looking like an idiot is something you can't ban because that's something that happens every time there's a sporting contest. Well, and that's bad news for my upcoming musical, John Howard.

There you go. Well, yes, in fact, someone being made fun of in an Australian track suit's already happened in kidding the musical with the character of John Howard, which was very well done. So, look, I mean, I don't want to get all boring and sort of IP law. about it. But yes, if Raygun is a trademark, you can't necessarily call it Raygun. But the funny quote here for me is from the lawyers, from Raygun's lawyers, the use of the Raygun named by a comedian without approval has caused confusion amongst the public, potentially leading them to believe that Raygun the musical had Rachel's approval and endorsement. Pretty sure that if a musical

is taking the piss out of you, it's unlikely to have someone's endorsement or approval. However, yeah, you're allowed to do a musical based on someone's life story. They could just call it anything the musical. Just literally anything the musical and it will be probably fine. Look, I'm no IP lawyer, get your own advice, but I suspect this is going to be a legal battle which will be won by the comedian in the end, possibly under a different name, which is good because I'm quite interested to see Raygun the musical. And thank you to Raygun for giving it such a massive amount of publicity. We've now all heard of it. I just think that if Steph needs to make her earnings back on it, she's got to start Raygun coin. Yes, indeed. Maybe that's the way you buy a ticket.

get to Ray Gunn the musical once it goes ahead under different name. All right, well, there are your big stories, an assassination, a meme coin and an IP battle at the Sydney Fringe Festival. Gentlemen, thank you very much. We'll catch you next time. O'Roo. And, Loughlin, pencil in a full episode on your experience, having Dr. Rachel Gunn as a lecturer. I hope the listeners are ready to hear all about the journey of modern media storytelling

emmcc 10010 at Victoria University. Actually, maybe we don't need to do that one. All right. Catch you later. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? FIS is 100% online so you can make the switch in minutes.

Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca.